Does anyone ever feel that the claims for these batteries that people are always talking about are overblown? I see all these press releases for batteries that can discharge 1000s of times with minimal efficiency loss and I wonder if it's all hype or there really is a huge price wall keeping this things from hitting the market.

I take all the "hype" with a grain of salt. I mean I'm sure they have numbers to back up their claims, but that's assuming near-perfect maintenance and charging, especially charging!

But as for the price barrier, yes it's definitely a reality.

Right now you can get "reasonably priced" Thundersky L-Ion batteries for EV-scale use. The problem is that they are far from the most advanced thing in lithium batts, and even then you can expect to shell out about $11,000 to get a full EV load of batteries depending on your application.

I think my $11,000 calculation was based off a 94 civic that would get around 100 miles per charge with a top speed of ~75mph. I can't really remember, it might have been for a pickup truck with the same range and less speed...
All that really matters is that the $11,000 still won't get you into Tesla roadster territory.

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"I got 350 heads on a 305 engine. I get 10 miles to the gallon. I ain't got no good intentions." - The Drive By Truckers.

Indeed, I think you hit on what really gets me about such claims. Would these batteries really live up to 3000 charges if you're running them down and then "5 minute charging" them all the time? I would be more interested to see a battery that can take abuse than something that works perfectly in impossible conditions.

Yeah, I really doubt you'd get anywhere near the maximum cycling running it only up to 90% SOC all of the time. Plus, that'd just kill your range, since you'd only want to run them to a maximum of 75% Depth of charge to avoid killing the cycling life. That gives you a pretty thin range to work with.
I know that with lead batteries, it's recommended to never get them below 75% charge, and to always bring them right back to 100% ASAP for full cycling life.

Will your laser be turret mounted? Or sticking out of the hood or door or something, that might be quite the aero drag.

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"I got 350 heads on a 305 engine. I get 10 miles to the gallon. I ain't got no good intentions." - The Drive By Truckers.

The laser should be mounted like the hood ornament on the Rolls Royce. Push of a button pops it out to shoot people. Push it again when you're going through the car wash. And for better aero.

But seriously...

One of the intensely, intensely smart guys in the Ottawa EV group pulled me aside a few meetings back to tell me about upcoming Toshiba batteries. His opinion is that they're being *conservative* with their ratings.

I don't know if these batts are the ones he was talking about, however he told me to expect li-ions that could go 60K cycles in the near future.